Installing D2 when it won't recognize your CD ROM drive:
Create a directory to put Descent II in.
Copy the \D2DATA\SETUP.EXE from the CD into this directory.
Copy all the .COM files in this ZIP file to your Descent2 directory.
Run FAKESET followed by the drive letter of your CD ROM.
Installation should proceed normally.  Example:

MD \DESCENT2
CD \DESCENT2
COPY D:\D2DATA\SETUP.EXE
COPY \ZIPS\FAKESET.COM
FAKESET D:

As far as I can tell, all INSTALL.EXE does is to run the setup program
from the CD.  It is effectively unnecessary.

To run Descent 2 with a CDROM drive that isn't recognized, simply
run FAKE_D2 followed by your CD ROM drive letter.  Example:
FAKE_D2 D:

To run Descent 2 without the CD ROM do a "crazy" installation to
copy everything to the hard disk.  Then you simply copy the files
NOCD.BAT and FAKE_D2.COM into your DESCENT2 directory and run NOCD.
Everything SHOULD run normally.

If you have a more complex setup, FAKE_D2 allows any drive letter to be
your fake CDROM drive, so long as it is not the same drive letter that
you are running Descent off of.  You must create a \D2DATA directory and
copy in any files you did not install in your descent directory.  Then
run FAKE_D2 followed by the drive letter for your "CD ROM".

Example:  Your CD ROM drive is E:.  You want to install Descent on drive
C: and put the movies on drive D:. You would do the following after
installing Descent using a medium amount of disk space and low resolution
movies:

MD D:\D2DATA
COPY E:\D2DATA\intro-l.mvl D:\D2DATA
COPY E:\D2DATA\other-l.mvl D:\D2DATA
COPY E:\D2DATA\robots-l.mvl D:\D2DATA

Also copy the FAKE_D2.COM file into your descent2 directory.

Any time you want to run the game you would do the following:
C:
CD \GAMES\DESCENT2
FAKE_D2 D:

You can also look at the NOCD.BAT file for an example of how everything works.

Troubleshooting:
Q: Descent is still asking for the CDROM.
A: 1: You are running under WIN95.  Don't.
   2: You are using NOCD and the SUBST.EXE command is not on your path.
      Make sure your DOS or WINDOWS\COMMAND directory is on your path.
   3: Try without any CD-ROM drivers.

Q: Descent locks up, hesitates, or does Strange Stuff but works fine from the
   CD.
A: 1: Disable Redbook audio in the setup and try again.

Q: Descent says it's unable to initialize the VMM.
A: 1: Try removing as many device drivers and TSRs as possible.  Network drivers
      in particular could produce this when running on a network drive.

Q: Will this allow me to run Descent under OS/2
A: Maybe.  You will probably have to create a floppy with a D2DATA directory
   on it and use "FAKE_D2 A:" to run Descent.  If you have two or more
   hard disk partitions you can use another partition instead of the
   floppy.  Just make sure there is a D2DATA directory off of the root.
   Please email me (jon@inmind.com) if you actually get this to work so
   I can describe it in better detail.

This program is released to the public domain by Jon Barnhart (jon@inmind.com)
on March 16, 1996.